THOMS OF TACOMA >>>

A Persian Gulf War veterans and a career Navy officer turned legislative analyst will be the newest member of the Tacoma City Council. Tuesday night, council appointed Robert Thoms, founder and CEO of political consulting firm The Navigation Group, to fill its open District 2 position (northeast Tacoma, Port of Tacoma and downtown Tacoma) - vacated when Jake Fey left the council following his election to the State House of Representatives.

After watching the council interview the seven candidates during its non study session live on TV Tacoma while simultaneously reading a live Twitter smackdown of the process between feedtacoma.com and The Trib's Lewis Kamb - then, four hours later, listening to each councilmember weigh in and gives props to each candidate during its weekly council meeting, it was obvious the decision came down to two candidates - Thoms and local business advocate Patricia Lecy-Davis. The council gave props to Lecy-Davis for her hard work, dedication and business savvy, but ultimately chose the candidate with strong political experience and military knowledge. Most councilmembers, including Mayor Marilyn Strickland, stated forging a better relationship with Joint Base Lewis-McChord was a major goal of the council. Thoms has worked to coordinate the South Sound Military and Communities Partnership, a group of regional governments and partners, to better liaison with JBLM. He previously served as senior staff member for U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell.

Thoms will receive an annual salary of $41,269 for his part-time position with the city.